The Learning Curve

by Neil A. Hogan

The time traversing capsule incloded. Neither exploding nor imploding, the rapid disintegration of the time machine expanded sideways through the dimensions. The rupture of space/time created a bridge between universes.

After absorbing the image, the collective mind of Jaal deleted their link to the fungi and floated back into the caressing cilia of the wall.

The Crass undulated slightly, its pinkish hue reflecting images of Jaal before they occurred, as a breeze poured past within it.

Images of words, extrusions into this reality from a higher dimension, appeared in the air in front of Jaal. The Crass was playing with her new recruit(s), avoiding regularly telepathy.

“One of the slashes from the inclosion opened onto a planet in universe 646. As deletion causes rapid space/time expansion, it is imperative that you close it from the other side. You’ll have to project an acceptable form into their dimension.”

“We’ll work something out,” said Jaal, eager to prove their worth. They collected themselves, coalesced, rearranged and shifted ‘out.’ As their consciousness drifted towards the gash, they assimilated the information regarding their future position.

Then, they were there.

A human was nearby. A human called John.

John looked up irritatedly at the old geezer with white hair coming towards him. “What the blazes? Who the hell are you?”

Jaal knew that Doctor John Smith wasn’t impressed with his arrival. He’d already downloaded John’s mind. Location: Great Zimbabwe City. Earth Year 2017. The archaeologist was trying to conceal a tablet with an inscription he’d dug up near this stone tower. Jaal knew it was something he had to read, without this human nearby.

With a single thought, Doctor John Smith was lying back in his bed recovering from a large alcoholic mixture he couldn’t remember drinking the night before. And no one that day had seen him visit the ruins.

Jaal looked about him. Hot sand, great blocks of stone – remains of an ancient civilisation. He moved over to the now unguarded inscription, his feet giving the impression that he was actually walking on the sand.

He found that the researcher still had a lot to do, and had been focused on some old writing on a stone he had excavated. Above the stone sat a tall spire, something the ancient people in the area must have worshipped, or built to get closer to heaven. But the stone work of the column did not match the baked clay structure beneath it. Perhaps it was added later.

Jaal looked closely at the inscription, and then stopped.

He recognised the style of writing.

His.

Time to pay a visit back in time.

—

A shimmering ball shone brightly above the congregation of some fifty humans. Jaal had appeared as an old Witch Doctor with feathers on his head and bangles on his feet. (He hoped he’d got the costume right for this time period.) They hadn’t noticed him yet but he had to work fast. He pointed his hands towards the orb… then stopped. It was a pre-image. A ghost of the rupture that was yet to come.

He groaned.

The figures noticed him then and bowed to the ground, chanting.

Well, this paradox created itself very quickly, he thought.

He quickly formed a clay block, with the message he’d seen in the future, and buried it under the position of the shadow orb. He then covered the message with a solid pile of sand that wouldn’t decay for a few centuries. He knew they’d build over it.

He jumped back to his previous position in time, watched his other self disappear, then destroyed the block that he’d made centuries ago. He was aware the inscription was already known, but he didn’t want a temporal focal point for any time creature to absorb. Especially not one with an embedded paradox loop. He doubted they’d be able to sniff out the few seconds of paradox time he’d just created.

The sphere had reflected from the future, and he had been able to detect the location through the pre-image.

Here, in a few hours’ time.

He then jumped forward a few hours.

The ruins were crowded. Reporters were everywhere. Jaal’s current form was a female reporter carrying video equipment. She held her ring camera forward and scanned the crowd. A few people waved.

Jaal had to destroy the real orb before it appeared, otherwise it might swallow the planet.

A flash of energy pummelled Jaal through the nearby wall.

What?

She should have received ample warning of this happening.

Jaal scanned the sphere of light that now surrounded the ruins. She sighed. It’s just another sliver. Not the real one.

The Crass broke in on Jaal’s thought line. “It is the real one. It’s trying to trick you. The energy wants to escape into that dimension.”

Jaal converted to the same frequency as the sphere and attempted to merge with it. It rejected her knowing what Jaal was.

There was only one thing to do.

She slipped back in time.

—

Now a field of energy, Jaal surrounded the rupture as soon as it appeared, controlling the newly born consciousness that was struggling to get free.

The orb tried to escape, sending out a shadow image of itself, to distract, but Jaal just flicked the fake back several centuries and several hundred light years to the planet’s previous position.

Jaal slowly absorbed the rupture into its energy body, converting it to stable and safe vibrations, then floated in the voice, pleased that it had completed its mission.

Its pleasure was short-lived.

—

The Crass undulated angrily. “Jaal, you’ve let it loose. It’s attempting to control our bridge between the dimensions.”

Jaal looked shocked. “But we just absorbed it,” they protested.

“You got rid of an alternate version that you created. As you lived in the time zone where it escaped, you’ve created another timeline for it to exist. The original version is still going to destroy everything.”

“No, wait,” said Jaal, concerned it might be losing its position shortly after getting it. “There’s a solution. We’ll reverse our personal timeline and prevent it in the correct universe.”

“HURRY.”

Jaal reversed time within their personal existence. They created the loop at the appropriate point and the time rupture was rejected correctly in universe six four six.

Perhaps they weren’t cut out for this job. Surely that was all they needed to do?

They returned to the Crass.

“Ah, Jaal. You have a problem. As you weren’t prepared for the rupture, you creating two opposing timelines. Even though you reversed your personal timeline, you were still aware of reversing it, so another parallel timeline still exists. We’ve contacted the universe you’ve created and it’s decided that the best way is for it to be absorbed by the temporal wound. I’m afraid we’re going to have to send you there to destroy it.”

Jaal was horrified. “But that’s a thinking entity.”

The Crass was damning in its silence.

Jaal dissolved and headed for the time-break. Being a universe guardian was more difficult than they had imagined. They missed their previous job of jettisoning novae into dying universes.

The orb had encapsulated the planet and was expanding towards the star. Jaal merged with the consciousness of the star, setting up a localised reverse time field around it. Tentacles of the bloated rupture were repelled by the anti-time energy.

Suddenly, the bloated planet vanished and so did the star.

If Jaal had had a face to rub at this point, he would have.

The space/time anomaly had appeared within the star and absorbed Jaal’s program.

A nova flash and the Orb was back, swallowing up the star system. A red planet, and a number of asteroids, its outer skin enlarging towards a gas giant. It was also rapidly expanding through the connections between the hogan particles.

Of course! Jaal realised. If they could change the charge of the hogan particles, the rupture would reverse within its own existence, and maybe even cancel itself out.

Jaal reduced themselves past atoms, electrons, tachyons, particle vibrations, and eventually found themselves floating beside an alternating hogan particle. The smallest particle. No more than a plank second in size, and quantum locked to every other particle in existence. The particle that created all the other particles in the universe.

Jaal flicked out a tentacle of energy and connected with the consciousness of the particle, explaining what needed to be done. It agreed. All other relevant hogan particles felt the change and reacted as one.

Jaal quickly rose back to macro-size, appearing as a small comet. They kept their distance as the orb expanded towards them, the rupture sucking in a couple of gas giants on the way.

The hogan particles began their work, outside and inside the orb, rewriting in unison.

Suddenly there was a flash and the ball regurgitated the two gas giants. It shrank fast. Too fast. If Jaal wasn’t quick enough they might be caught in the effect.

They plummeted down to the particles and updated them. The rupture vanished backwards, reducing itself back to Earth.

Jaal arrived with it and was pleased to see that time had gone forward without them and that his timeline wasn’t affected.

The Crass contacted him. “It worked, and we’ve managed to find out what caused the explosion of the time machine. A rapidly contracting ball of anti-time. The time machine came back together and went on its original course, the occupants not even aware of any problem. Well done!”

Jaal was pleased and disappeared back to their dimension to await the next assignment as universe guardian. Perhaps they’ll return and observe that crew one eon…